The Rants & Rambles of A Grumpy Old Dude

Flash Fiction #51

It had been a gorgeous vacation. They had sunned, surfed and swam. They had been driven to the observatory on top of a mountain, to see Hawaiian snow, and the stars beyond.

Now their hotel was throwing them a farewell luau. Bob had heard that they buried an entire pig on a bed of coals beneath the sand. The Lanakai did something different. They substituted Mahi Mahi, a local game fish, wrapped in palm leaves and slow-baked. The feast was exquisite.

It might be back to the grind in Titusville on Monday, but he would remember this all his life.

Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.

30 thoughts on “Flash Fiction #51”

The wife tried it at Hyman’s, in Charleston one time, but didn’t like it. I chose something else, so I don’t know.
The most expensive knife-maker in Canada used to throw a get-together at his house, 50 miles away, on the beach, the weekend of a local show. I got to attend a couple of times. He’d put a half-pig in a big smoker. He’d choose an attending maker to build a knife to cut it up with, then raffle off the knife. I never won, but there were a couple of beauties. 😀

Don’t tell anyone, ’cause it would put a dent in my online persona but, I am an unabashed, hedonist Pollyanna, always looking to enjoy the simple things in life. I love sunny days, rainbows (now there’s a contradiction) and kitten videos. I could never afford a vacation like this, but I can appreciate it vicariously, by writing about someone else’s. And now back to our regularly scheduled rants and rambles. 😆

I didn’t even research it. I just assumed that someone must do it this way. 😉
You had it prepared like this in Germany?? There’s not a lot of palm fronds in Germany. Did they use something else? Corn leaves or husks? I’m glad you got to try it, and enjoyed it. 🙂

I’ll bet you do. As noted in a comment above, the wife tried it but doesn’t like it. It’s a bit expensive for us retirees. The price of Tilapia is coming down locally – at least for frozen. If it drops any more, I’d like to try that. We unexcitingly keep to haddock, occasionally cod, and a bit of fresh salmon when it’s on sale. 😆

Man I need to take a holiday. You paint such a lovely picture. I can feel the heat from the coals, partaking in the feast late into the night whilst drinking cocktails on the beach with the woman I love. Reminds me of my brothers wedding in Sri Lanka when we had the wedding breakfast on the beach under the stars, followed by my wife and I having a romantic meal in a tree-house overlooking the beach the night after. Thank you for re-conjuring this image for me.

All that in a hundred words??! I think I hit your suggestibility switch.
Let’s try this. “Your eyes are getting heavy. You are growing sleepy. When you awake you will need to send me money.”
Nah, I didn’t think it would work. 😕 😳

I’m glad you enjoyed the piece, however, grammatically, only ‘had sunned’ is past participle. ‘Surfed’ and ‘swam’ are simple past tense verbs, therefore ‘swam’ is correct usage. I did it that way, both for brevity, to fit the 100-word limit, and for vernacular clarity.
Even if the final two verbs were read as past participles, the correct form would not be swimmer, nor swimmed, nor even swimmeD. It would be ‘swum’, or so my “auot-spell checker” insists. 😛

I went to the observatory in thisFlash Fiction, although my character was from Chicago. The Titusville I dragged into this post is in Pennsylvania, and the home of one of the knives I posted about owning.
The FL version is just over on the Atlantic coast from where my parents and brother used to winter in Davenport. I’m guessing Miami area for you, because ‘several hours’ south of Tville is in Cuba. 😳

This was kind of lovely, a vacation in itself.
Reading the swim, swam, swummed stuff.
We say dived in the UK instead of dove. Read Scott Fitzgerald in my teens and couldn’t get what this ‘dove’ (as in white bird?) into the pool was all about. Although we do say drove, as in I drove to the beach and dived into the waves whereas…
Nice Story!

I’m glad you enjoyed my feast. The comments can sometimes be just as entertaining. I think someone got swim-swammed. I had a ‘discussion’ once with a commenter about smelled/ smelt, and kneeled/knelt. I think I have to go back up and give someone else a grammar lesson. 😳